Redneck

Went to the Stars/Edmonton game last night and certainly watched McDavid. A few observations: He certainly looks big enough, not Eichel size, but big enough to play in the NHL. He was on the line with Benoit Pouliot and Nail Yakupov. Two under-performers. He did not play on the penalty kill at all. Right in front of us (we sit 10 rows above the ice in the corner) he displayed some nice/fancy stick work, essentially controlling the puck with one hand while fending the defender off. There was one time when when he rushed up the ice, showing some good speed, but then lost control of the puck. Nice deflection to score -- that was on the other end of the ice, so my view is not as good as the ones on TV/Internet. Played on the second unit PP and did not seem to be the QB. I got the sense they are brining him along slowly whereas Eichel is on the PK, QB of the PP, etc. I will be going to Stars/Buf, so I will have the pleasure of watching both!

Just got home from the game. We hung out with the refs after the game -- nice guys. On Grigs. I saw a few things. On the first goal, he did a great job bringing the puck into the zone on the right side then went around the boards (where I was sitting about 10 rows above the ice) got control of the puck and made a great pass to Foligno who shot it - Gionta got the rebound the scored. It was a great pass with little time to think and he got it to an open man. Later - he made a nice no-look pass to Gionta and Kari made a nice save. Later - he made a very pass to get the puck of his zone into a breaking teammate. On these plays, there was no time to react and he did something very good with the puck. I didn't see the play where he got undressed by Seguin. He just needs to play play play and get up to the speed of the game. Great hands.

LOL. HI Brenden, here is an old home movie with me and your dad! http://youtu.be/-pFXPH1wwcA In any event, he is one of ours now, hope he develops and helps the Sabres kick some ass.